For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; The lords of the nations have broken down the choice plants thereof; They reached even unto Jazer, they wandered into the wilderness; Her branches were spread abroad, they passed over the sea. Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh! For upon thy summer fruits and upon thy harvest the battle shout is fallen, And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; And in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither joyful noise; No treader shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the vintage shout to cease. Wherefore my bowels sound like an harp for Moab, And it shall come to pass, when Moab presenteth himself, when he wearieth himself upon the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail. This is the word that the LORD spake concerning Moab in time past. But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and of no account. V Doom of Syria and Israel Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria shall be- as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the standing corn, and his arm reapeth the ears; yea, it shall be as when one gleaneth ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, saith the LORD, the God of Israel. In that day shall a man look unto his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall he have respect to that which his fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images. In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel: and it shall be a desolation. For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange slips: in the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom: but the harvest shall be an heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. vi A Doom Song Ah, the uproar of many peoples, Which roar like the roaring of the seas; And the rushing of nations, That rush like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: But he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off; And shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, And like the whirling dust before the storm. At eventide behold terror; And before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, And the lot of them that rob us. vii Doom of Ethiopia Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, Even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters: 'Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, 'To a people terrible from their beginning onward ; 'A nation that meteth out, and treadeth down, 'Whose land the rivers divide.' All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the trumpet is blown, hear ye. For thus hath the LORD said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling place; like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For afore the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he shall cut off the sprigs with pruninghooks, and the spreading branches shall he take away and cut down. They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. In that time shall a present be brought unto the LORD of hosts - of a people tall and smooth, And from a people terrible from their beginning onward; A nation that meteth out, and treadeth down, Whose land the rivers divide to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the Mount Zion. viii Doom of Egypt Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and cometh unto Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of |